Crime Information and Communication Hub

This is how many crimes take place every day in South Africa

Last month, the South African Police Service released the crime statistics for 2016, showing which crimes have increased – and decreased – over the past year.

With mote than 2.12 million crimes being reported in the country across 27 different categories, it’s difficult to process how the big numbers translate to a daily occurrence in SA.

By looking at the crime stats as a statistical average, and the rate of crime per the population, we are able to better understand how the crimes relate to the lived experience in the country.

For example, in the 2015/16 crime stats period, with over 340,000 instances of theft taking place, statistically speaking that translates to 933 theft crimes taking place in the country every day – or 40 cases every hour.

Looking at the theft rate among the population, this shows that 618 cases of theft were opened for every 100,000 people in the population.

While the theft rate may not seem that big, it would easily place South Africa among the 10 worst countries in the world for theft (2012 data shows that only Belgium and Spain, with 1000+ per 100,000 population) would be worse.

One factor that is always draws negative attention to South Africa is the murder rate, which is one of the highest in the world. The country’s murder rate sits at 34 people murdered per 100,000 in the population.

Statistically, two people are murdered every hour in the country – 51 people every day.

The following table shows how many crimes take place in South Africa every day and hour – and their rates among the population.Biggest increase to biggest decrease in crimes 2016